New DigitalGlobe Imagery for Steve Fossett Search

September 13, 2007

[UPDATE 21-Sept 1330: I found a new KML file put together which not only shows all the released imagery datasets, but also includes placemarks of already marked locations. Download this master GE file, which comes to us from this Search for Steve Fossett web site]
New imagery is available to help search for Steve Fossett and it comes from DigitalGlobe (the biggest supplier of satellite imagery in Google Earth). This new imagery is to the south-east of the earlier search imagery from GeoEye. The imagery available for loading in Google Earth has been posted at this Amazon Mechanical Turk site. You can use the Amazon site to search, or you can just look with Google Earth. I’ve created a new Steve Fossett network link that lets you look at both sets of imagery. The network link includes red outlines around each set of imagery so people don’t accidentally search beyond the new imagery. If you go outside the borders you are looking at the base Google Earth imagery – which was taken long before Steve Fossett went missing.
NOTE: I tried asking Google about this previously reported imagery from DigitalGlobe. But, Google is not commenting on their involvement. I called DigitalGlobe today, and they told me they had given this imagery to Google, but had not heard anything as of early this morning. Obviously, somebody processed the imagery and turned it over to the Amazon Mechanical Turk people. The DigitalGlobe photography available in the network link is better aligned with the base imagery. So, it makes it easier to compare before and after.

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was released. He worked in 3D graphics for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank left in 2009 to circumnavigate the earth by sailboat as part of the Tahina Expedition.

Comments

Well done Frank et al-don’t know whether this was due to the ‘collective gripe’ going on the forum or whether it was just a time delay problem in collating and obtaining the data from other sources.
Anyway-good news we can all now continue with our assistance and hopefully come to a successful conclusion

Don’t know if this is possible, but one assumes that this area has already been swept by the SAR teams.
It would be extremely useful if they could upload (or make available) all the sites they have looked at so far, so that we can quickly exclude these from our deliberations.

Don’t know if this is possible, but one assumes that this area has already been swept by the SAR teams.
It would be extremely useful if they could upload (or make available) all the sites they have looked at so far, so that we can quickly exclude these from our deliberations.

These didn’t come up as my hits but I always look around near my assignment.
The first four are most likely terrain.
But the fifth is intriguing. It looks like a delta wing shape.
38°15’26.45″N 118°30’18.90″W
38°15’3.24″N 118°31’0.27″W
38°15’2.73″N 118°31’0.66″W
38°15’6.91″N 118°30’17.25″W
38°15’18.14″N 118°30’16.25″W

See the link for my location ‘hits’. #10 is from the new image.http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mike_in_katy/My SF Locations.kmz
I tried to sign-up at the Amazon sight and couldn’t. It occured to me that Mechanical Turk might be taking advantage of this infortunate situation just to make a buck (or get new customers).
It would be much simplier if they would just say “here’s the image, here’s our email, have at it!”.

View around 1500 ft. Color looks more like the surrounding earth, but the shape strongly resembles that of a plane.
37°59’44.37″N 119°26’55.62″W
In case we do find potential sites, how do we officially report them?

Bravo to your interest in finding Steve. If you are looking for locations on the Digital Globe imagery that come from the “Turk”, it designed to spread us out and make us look systematically. I’m surprised that if you are looking at the same instructions that I see (on stevefossett.com) that you aren’t reporting coordinates in decimal degrees (rather than dms or decimal minutes, or whatever). Let’s be consistent, so we don’t have to do extra conversions and make mistakes! Also, send the “points of interest” back to the Turk so that the search crews can check them out.

My observations from a humble beginner.
A tutorial and example of how to look would be nice but perhaps there is no good way to learn other than through trial and error.
Make sure to use the current overlay/layer.
Some of your objects are big.
Check out – 38 53′ 35.41″ -118 49′ 13.17″
This is supposedly a confirmed site of an old crash. From the forum site –http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/999457/Main/992512/
Turn on your “scale legend” and watch how close you have to get before you see anything.

At 37.9984 -118.426 I found what might be a fuselage at the end of a straight line path cut thru the brush near the top of a hill. Off to either side of the skid path looks like what might be wing struts. I had been given a HIT about a 1/4 mile NE of here. I replied to that HIT, so I hope the SAR folks will actually read it and look at it rather than just pass over it since no one else probably responded to that HIT.

I meant shouldn’t Turk be the way it was the new SAT image in the tile then compare to old in GE? It’s now backwards I believe the old imagery is in TURK and you have to look at every one in GE instead of magnifying the browser to 190% for example?

Interesting symbol here (petroglyph?) Looks like it’s on the older imagery though.
38.487167,-119.022446
If the Turk imagery looks wrong, click the link on the right again. I think there’s new imagery around the airport.

After playing with My Places and shuffling folders, etc, Search area is very fuzzy. As GE goes to the DG area, two files are not found: 00.kmz and 02.kmz. Red Borders are gone, and second area – long rectagular one SE of main area – is also gone.
What have I done?

Looks to be a plane down in 38°17’18.16″N, 119°15’13.79″W, and another (slightly less plane shaped) one close by at 38°17’22.65″N, 119°15’11.49″W.
Both spots appear to be on a dry lake bed (which is flooded in the old data) so perhaps Fossett set down to examine the terrain and for some reason was unable to take off again.

I am sure you all have already figured this out but as a suggestion, it helps to rotate the image by using the compass rose on GE untill the image is rightside up. I do this by rotating the image untill the shadows are directly below (toward the bottom of the screen) the trees or buildings and it helps to better discriminate between terrain and man made objects.
Hope this helps.

Have found two white spots
38′ 43″ 45.92N 118′ 58″ 10.85W
38′ 43″ 42.92N 118′ 58″ 07.08N
View at 1000ft or you will miss them.
Fits all criteria/timings etc but north of Search zone. Have tried to pass it on.
Comments?

I have been feverishly working on the case of Steve Fossett’s disappearance and have come up with an area that I have defined just east of the original search area and just west of the newly defined search area. I have a saved Google Earth image with push pins that include my logic for putting the area just in between the other areas.
I used both Google Earth and Flight Simulator Ten (FSX) to come up with my findings, and I’m convinced that Steve may have actually been heading for either R-4811 or Alkali Lake after he ran into trouble (based on the camper’s comments).
Please email directly if you would like a copy of the image I’ve defined that include my reasons why I think he can be found where I’ve indicated.
I hope this helps find Mr. Fossett.
—Dean Ceran

I have been re-checking all coord. posted.
also have received numerous emails from individuals for rechecks.
Any coord. that are posted that have ANY value for further research I will repost findings and pass on to my contact at the search command post.
remember to post 4 sets of numbers for each lat. and long.
thankstdfusa@bellsouth.net

Stabbing at thin air here, I came across this in his flight-path:
38.517684,-118.874962
Also these were on the Amazon Turk. I’m 95% sure they are on the old imagery but they sure as heck look like planes.
38.464000,-118.823804
38.457397,-119.023084

Okay, with hundreds if not thousands of eyes looking for him (in the air, ground, via satellite imagery), wouldn’t it be possible that because it was such a nice day, that he might have gone off the “projected path” and take a round about path? I can’t help but think everyone is so concentrated on looking “inside the box” that he may be right outside it. He’s an adventurer/explorer; wouldn’t that make sense? That said…I found something that looks like wreckage of some sort that slid down part of a mountain at:
39 26 00 59 N and 120 02 55 66 W

Greetings from Texas!
If you would like to see a plane in an inappropriate place…I think I might have found the needle in the hay stack! I used Google Earth instead of Turk. At first I found what looks like a plane on Paoha Island Coordinates 38°00’55.50″N, 119°01’53.39″W. You can copy and paste then zoom in real tight. You will see a “plus” or 4 rt angles or possibly a plane on land about 2 plane lengths from the North shore. It is hard to tell if it is a plane.
I was pretty excited about that, but then God, in all his mercy…well, check it out for yourselves and let me know what you think. I believe there is no question…….June Lake submerged plane Coordinates …. 37°47’28.04″N, 119°04’04.66″W
…..

D Dearinger: June Lake: It is a plane, but it could also be a reflexion from a flying one?!
That’s why someone should set up a webpage where all findings are collected, structured and commented…
Everyone is posting coordinates but there is no feedback at all. What do you think? Does this make sense or is there alreay a page I don’t know

I have a a good suggestion, and i hope u will pass it on.
A sattelite image for mining purposes only can look selectively for large hunks of metal on the ground.
His engine could be found probably and differentiated form most other sites quickly. He hasnt been found yet cause the wreck is likely disguised a bit. There are specific satellites used for mining that take images using special filters looking for minerals. This is how this should proceed. pass it on

D,
I have to agree, this looks exactly like a submerged plane, but it is also extremely visible from altitude. You would think surely the search planes would have spotted it and already checked it out… If not, it needs to be.
JR

Re: the plane “in the water”
See the blue shadow above the plane? The plane is flying low over the water and the tip of its shadow is visible just in front of the nose of the plane. All through these images there will be planes flying, always with the blue shadow above it in the image. The reason for the blue color has something to do with the way colors bend around an object in the sunshine, but it’s a good indicator of a flying plane and not one on the ground or under the water.

Please look at 37 34 06 25 N 117 39 41 97 W.
There is an image of an airplane in a ravine that measures the 22 feet 11 inches and seems to be on its back with the bottom of the plane facing up. (Wings are pointing North to South, with rear of plane pointing west. If you also look just above the image to the left, there seems to be the image of a person walking. Steve Fossett was searching for flat desert areas to test his cars and would most likely have been in this area.

When I review this area there are a lot of symbol-like items around it and several things that could be from some type of plane.
Looks like an X in a circle: 38°31’39.73″N, 38°31’39.73″N
Nearby, this looks like 3 Xs: 38°31’37.12″N, 38°31’37.12″N
Unusual shading: 38°31’37.12″N, 118°53’1.96″W
Another X with something planelike near it: 38°31’37.88″N, 118°52’47.80″W
Looks like a large cross, the center starts about here: 38°31’31.47″N, 118°52’53.84″W
On the most recent overlay, nearby “Anita for Tash” wrote: September 17th, 2007 at 2:08 am . . . looks like there is something there and when I viewed the hit on Mturk, there seemed to be an X nearby at 38.5254°, -118.881°. Coordinates: 38° 31″31.44’N, -118° 52″51.60’W; Decimal Degrees: -118.881,38.5254

***IMPORTANT***
Looking at Google Earth at location 38°26’15.41″N 118°32’19.73″W with overlay DG_60cm, I located some strange shapes, not on basic Google Earth. they are also in GeoEye_Delivery4, with exactly same position but some image alignment offset 338m ~ 5°
There are not only one, but several as shows images attached. I personally flagged 4 parts, all white.
Zooming and processing the biggest one, it appears clearly some blue pixels on top of the shape that could belong to Decathlon wings.
What can be confusing is that some other yellow parts are also new some hundreds meters south east
A big yellow shape originally present ( 38°26’10.50″N 118°32’15.38″W) disappeared in new images and 2 other smaller same color appeared ( 38°26’11.03″N 118°32’16.33″W and 38°26’11.66″N 118°32’15.78″W ) . At the same time, another white shape ( 38°26’10.83″N 118°32’15.25″W) appeared, all those stuff less than 200 meters from clearly identified ones.
Using Google Earth to figure this out, it is possible that the plane at high speed oblique N W trajectory having stroked the original shape could have broken it in 2 shapes, while spreading debris ahead on a 200 m area 35~40 m lower that this initial impact point.
This is located apparently inside U.S. Army Ammunition Depot, what could explain that nobody could reach it because area is probably closed and although located along a road ( that could have try to reach Steve in an attempt to land more safely ), it may have been completely ignored because no patrol ever gone there.
Hope it helps

38.233722 N
119.412219 W Elev 8465
White, aircraft shaped object, too rectangular to be natural. Largely intact. On the side of a ravine. It sure looks like the right shape, but maybe too intact to be a downed aircraft. Perhaps someone else with more experience can check it out.

38°24’54.22”N, 118°47’0521”W is a good could be. It looks like it made a hard touchdown then went down the slope about 255’ WEST (NOT east as I wrote in my last comment)
did a 180 and came to rest. Looks like the wings are crumpled. It also looks twisted near the tail.

Investigate Backwards on this one:
He did not have his Cell Phone
He did not have his Watch GPS
He did not have the ELT activated
3 major points
Here ya go, as a risk manager and a good one I would suspect there were some out of the ordinary incidents happen to cause this loss.
It usually takes more than just one incident or action to cause a plane to come up missing. Think about it people.
What is it that has not been told about this incident?
Why due to past experience and previous type attempts for land speed records do you need to go look for a spot on MEMORIAL DAY? Why do you need to look for a flat spot at all. How many times were vehicles ran across the Desert for testing?
The story does not match his character. No Cell Phone? No GPS? No ELT activated. and a Gazillion people on this planet looking. No contact with Reno Departure or any FSS? Hint – He always had a radio and used it regardless………I bet I can find out what did happen.
I believe I may have the answer? This is not a 911 Conspiracy Theory or Pulling Building 7 or anything like that. As Columbo always said “UH By The Way I have one more question?” Look at one incident on what did happen then rule out what did not happen. What did happen is he got in a small Airplane and left the Hilton Ranch. ‘Flying M” or what ever you want to call it.
John Browning RENOFLAMES41@aol.com

This is it: Plane is located on the southwest perimeter on top of a sand bar in Walker Lake. Image can be zoomed to 10 feet and encompass the entire frame. If plane was in flight, there would be nothing but a white blob.
38° 37’48.39″N, 118° 44’14.46″W
38.6301083333,-118.73735
11928259942452682.kml

What if our friend Steve – got tired of the glamor and risk taking and just wanted a rest .. and wanted to “get lost” – so did anyone check the fueling stops – like Las Vegas – etc ??
This Google Earth is fantastic. Will read..
Regards to Steve where ever he is and let us know You are OK./JSm N3RF Chm SRL and LSRF

I saw something looks like a airplane on two different spots. Maybe you have checked them already: 41°02’52.48 N / 115°16’48.16 W and
37°53’11.34 N / 118°19’09.72 W
I did n’t find this cordinators on an other comment. I know that they are outside of the seaching fields, but it’s not sooo far.
There is still hope!
Regards and good luck.
Tess

Walker Lake, about 2 miles South of the official search circle has been mentioned by several psychics as well as at least one experienced local pilot and was apparently searched with sonar.
So, it is probably hard to imagine that the clear angular light blue spot in the center [ 37°52’26.36″N, 119° 9’52.40″W ] as well as a bit of similar light blue along the near shore [ 37°52’29.27″N, 119° 9’52.66″W ] connected by a vague (disturbed sediment?) trail, starting well before the shore spot and then curving toward the central object, could be Steve Fossett’s plane.
Moreover, since this lies outside the official search area the imagery might of course predate the disappearance date….
Yet I was unable to find any other reports covering these spots and hope someone either knows the date these GE images were taken or has access to some other method of verification.

38 19’56.64″N 118 41’51.67″W appears to be a burn mark. It does not show up on the basic Google data set, but does on the GeoEye imagery. It appears much darker than nearby shadows and is much longer than shadows cast by the surrounding vegetation. It’s also roughly the size of an impact you might see with an aircraft of that size.

I read this week, 21 July 2008,where a new search has failed to find Mr. Fossett so I thought I’d see what info is out there. I’ve read the magazine articles from Esquire and Nat’l Geographic and looked at the official website for info. I read where Mr. Rawley Bigsby was the last person to see him at about 11 AM and reported he was flying slowly east about 100 ft up and wiggling the wings and moving the tail of the aircraft up and down. I wonder whether he may have developed a partially clogged fuel filter and was maneuvering the aircraft as reported in an attempt to maintain a flow of fuel to the engine whlie looking for a place to make an emergency landing. Because he’s not been found on the ground, he may have made a water landing. Given his reported low altitude he may have come across a body of water and made an instantaneous decision to try to ditch the plane. If this happened his angle of descent into the water may have been somewhat steep depending on the length of the body of water and height of surrounding foilage on the perimeter of the body of water. I’m assuming he didn’t make a pass over, circle around and then try to flare the plane out for a softer landing. From the structure of the aircraft in the picture displayed I would venture that as soon as the wheel housing dipped into the water it created enough drag that then caused the plane to nose over into the water and flip upside down. If this is what happened, then the plane most likely sank upside down and Mr. Fossett, who may have been knocked out by the sudden deceleration as the plane nosed over, drowned as it sank. This would also provide an explanation for why the emergency transponder didn’t activate as it didn’t sense this as a “hard landing”. I would recommend checking, most likely yet once again, any body of water east or northeast (I think he would have been more likely to turn to his left than to the right if he came up against the Wassuk range) of where Mr. Bigsby saw him and that would be within 10-15 minutes flight time, at the speed Mr. Bigsby reports. I’ve tried to do more research by bringing up and looking at the newest imagery a couple of times but Google Earth keeps saying it can’t contact the server. So that’s what I was thinking and why and how far I’ve gotten. Thanks.

I an a novice who does not understand. I read that the plane flew straight into the mountain. That it was completly burned and yet, 400 meters away, 100 dollar bills and a pilots license are found laying around. I keep this kind of stuff in my pockets. Strange

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